I’ve tabled my incredibly long stream of consciousness for now. Perhaps when I’m feeling “frisky” I’ll look it over and try to clean it up for public consumption. Now just isn’t the time. That, and I’m not sure it makes any coherent sense.
Jimmy Eat World is coming to RIT at the end of April. Sweet deal.
My next and final quarter at RIT has been planned out classes-wise and it’s pretty ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome! I have two classes every day, 2-6pm from Monday – Thursday. My lineup includes re-taking Computer Organization (time to tidy up that GPA) which is half MIPS assembly programming (yay) and CPU design (nay). I still have my book and all the notes/homework from round one, so it should make round two much easier. Next up is Public Speaking, top top off an “Upper Level Liberal Arts” requirement. I could simply take another philosophy class, but the drive to take something a teency bit more practical with a roommate versus getting up at 8am.
I’m also in Entrepreneurship, as part of my “Non-Computer Science Related Electives” requirement, as I’ve taken a few other business classes and wanted to see what academia could give me versus reading a slew of books on my own. It’s a shame I can’t minor in Entrepreneurship – I would have been able to, but two years ago I was more interested in taking Wines classes. Nothing wrong with knowing that Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon will trump anything you can come up with any day of the week. I think being able to pick out wines on dates, family gatherings or on business ventures trumps anything I would have achieved with a second minor from RIT.
Possibly the most influential course that I’ll be taking next quarter is a graduate level CS course on Grid Computing. It is the first time it is “taught” – its a research class, where I will be digging through papers and presenting on a topic on a whim. It’ll be a lot of information to absorb, but the most interesting part is the project that will be worked on throughout the quarter. It will be some sort of group effort where our results won’t be something that is graded and canned by the teacher, but will be used by others in research and/or academia to help complete the work they need to complete. The idea of utility computing benefits every sector of research if its easy for them to tap into a large amount of computing resources. Regardless of what I end up working on, being part of the Center for Advancing the Study of Cyberinfrastructure (CASCI) here at RIT will definitely be a miniature capstone for me.
Rock out.
Also, I’m one of the hosts for the upcoming un-conference here in Rochester known as a BarCamp. In a nutshell, it brings tech-oriented people together to present topics that they are interested in. By having those who go present on projects / ideas / lead discussions that they are invested in personally, it will attract like-minded people that would be open to collaborating on the topic. This is the third that will be hosted at RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences (GCCIS represent!) and the numbers of attendees should be over a hundred (can we break two hundred? we haven’t even advertised yet!). I highly recommend going over to the wiki at http://barcamp.org/BarCampRochester3 and learn a bit more about what it is. Put down your name, contact info, a presentation topic and a teeshirt size (it’ll be free!) and we’ll make sure you’re accounted for!